PocketWizard Wonders!

I've have been asked to blog more frequently than I have been. Honesty, I don't know how David Hobby at Strobist.com finds the time to post. It seems that I am always working, either for a client or for the business. Actually, I should stop this post and get back to work... you know what I mean.

This photograph was done for Arch Coal, Inc., a St. Louis based coal company. I was shooting on the western slope of Colorado at their West Elk mine, near the town of Paonia. I had spent most the day underground shooting and at the end of the day I was able to set up a quick shot at sundown. If you look closely at the bottom left corner of the photo, you will see to workers dressed in yellow slickers. One of those workers is my assistant Erik Lawrence who has worked with me for about 8 years. I had Erik place a small strobe on a pipe fitting in order to light both he and the other worker.

The use of a PocketWizard was ideal for this situation. The PocketWizard is a small radio slave which allows me the ability to fire my strobes at great distances. This was the first time I had used this product, I have sense purchased 5 more. I'm not certain how far I was from the strobe but based on the fact that I was shooting with a Nikon 80-200mm zoom, I'd guess I was about 300-500 feet. Needless to say, I was impressed. You just can't make pictures like this with a tools sure as the PocketWizard.